Articles by Peter Maingot

Peter has been covering fantasy sports for Rotowire for over 10 years. He's covered hockey, football and basketball over the past decade but now focuses strictly on the frozen game. From the Great White North, Peter is a strong proponent of physical, up tempo hockey.

Just two weeks into the free-agent period most of the unrestricted top free agent talent is gone and several big name players have been moved via trade. While a few talented UFA individuals remain, trade winds are swirling on teams that have too much D (Boston, Anaheim), not enough defense (Detroit, Buffalo,) not enough centres (Edmonton, Ottawa?) and/or still possibly searching for top six wingers (Pittsburgh, Boston). So the landscaping clearly isn’t over for many NHL teams.

Consider this an early summer update with the understanding that these grades are for the first two terms of the offseason, with one term left.

Also, in the spirit that we want to include various forms of assessment, we’ll be including any and all trade activity that warrants consideration (based on possible impact).

One observation before we indulge in this data…have you noticed how most of the top talent that’s been moved/signed over the past fortnight (Wimbledon reference) has gone to the Western Conference?

Sid the Kid has been cleared for non-contact practices but how many games will he play this season?

Will you draft him?

If yes, in what round?

Many pundits project him to play 50 games and score 80 points. Last season only nine players in the entire league had 80 points or more.

Last season Crosby had an amazing 66 points in 41 games, that’s 1.61 points per game (ppg). Crosby’s career PPG is 1.39. Thus if he does
play 50 games and match his career PPG he’ll get 70 points and if he can score at last season’s rate and play 50 games he’ll score 80.

Crosby may also have better offensive line mates this season than he’s had previously. James Neal and Steve Sullivan are two Penguin
players that have yet to play a game with Crosby, while the power play boasts world-class talents like Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

I have been doing a few mock drafts lately and find Crosby makes for an intriguing pick around the low 90’s.